Opening a new gym - Help!?

[geronamo]

Hi guys,

A friend and I are looking into opening a new gym. Its not going to be anything flash, just low key for 100 people to start with. Basically it will all be our friends. We were wondering what regultions there were regarding health and safety? I assume you need a certain amount of toilets and showers etc. Can anybody point me in the direction of where I would find the info Im after?

Thanks guys

[steak]

Id be presuming your local council would have all the answers.

Where you thinking of?

[iwilson]

Don't think their are any fixed rules in regards to the number of showers etc. You'll soon find out if you don't have enough!

Starting up from scratch is a very, very expensive proposition. Commercial grade equipment is magnitudes more expensive than consumer gear. If you haven't done so already I suggest you contact some of the big suppliers, they often hold stocks of second hand gear they've traded out which can be got for reasonable money. The problem is no matter how small you are you need a reasonable amount of gear to cover the basics. Be careful with cardio, buy cheap and you end up buying twice... I would go cheap with plates, DB's, bars and benches, but even then you can be looking at 15k to get enough to start with.

It's a great industry to be involved with, but it's full of people with passion and no business sense and Clubs come and go with regularity. Don't under estimate the costs involved, a commercial lease on a building is a terrible thing, unlike residential you pay for EVERYTHING on top of your rent you'll be hit with rates, fire inspections, building warrant of fitness, water, power etc, if it's not structural then you pay! If you can get the landlord to do the fit out great, otherwise factor in a few 10's of thousands for a very basic fit out. My cleaning bill is a couple of grand a month minimum. Play music or have TV's then the PPNZ and APRA will be knocking on your door to clip their ticket. You'll need some Club management software to know who's paying and who ain't - don't rely on your mates to keep themselves up to date because they won't. So factor in 4 to 5 hundred a month minimum to lease the software (they generally won't sell it to you and if they do you better be sitting down when they tell you the price). How will you handle payments - if you use an external company like adfit (now debit success), they're take probably 10% of everything for such a small Club. Better to run it yourself with AP's but make sure you can import your bank statement and map the payments to the member automatically or you'll be spending a lot of time reconciling payments to members.

Then there is maintenance of equipment, members hate broken gear and service techs charge a fortune, better to do it yourself if handy with a spanner. Make sure you do loads of preventive maintenance, dust is a real killer for cardio equipment esp. treadmills, they overheat and die and the motors and speed controllers are monster bucks, so get the covers off every month and clean them out. Kept the belts well lubed, if you don't then the increased friction can burn a motor out. Always better to buy second hand big name brands like Life Fitness, Startrac and Technogym than new cheap Chinese gear, the motors and bearings are just not up to the job.

Just to give you an ideal, the spend on decent new equipment for a Club capable of handling 1,000 members would be around $400k to $500k. To cover the basics for 100 to 300 members you'd be lucky to get change out of $150k. But if you're careful and get some good second hand gear you can at least half this. Leasing equipment is also an option

Good luck!

[roadie]

why not consider doing an inc society.....if it is really a group of friends let everyone own it......you only need 15 to start one

this may help a little with the red tape...it does have downfalls but also positives

[Laver]

Don't think their are any fixed rules in regards to the number of showers etc. You'll soon find out if you don't have enough!

Starting up from scratch is a very, very expensive proposition. Commercial grade equipment is magnitudes more expensive than consumer gear. If you haven't done so already I suggest you contact some of the big suppliers, they often hold stocks of second hand gear they've traded out which can be got for reasonable money. The problem is no matter how small you are you need a reasonable amount of gear to cover the basics. Be careful with cardio, buy cheap and you end up buying twice... I would go cheap with plates, DB's, bars and benches, but even then you can be looking at 15k to get enough to start with.

It's a great industry to be involved with, but it's full of people with passion and no business sense and Clubs come and go with regularity. Don't under estimate the costs involved, a commercial lease on a building is a terrible thing, unlike residential you pay for EVERYTHING on top of your rent you'll be hit with rates, fire inspections, building warrant of fitness, water, power etc, if it's not structural then you pay! If you can get the landlord to do the fit out great, otherwise factor in a few 10's of thousands for a very basic fit out. My cleaning bill is a couple of grand a month minimum. Play music or have TV's then the PPNZ and APRA will be knocking on your door to clip their ticket. You'll need some Club management software to know who's paying and who ain't - don't rely on your mates to keep themselves up to date because they won't. So factor in 4 to 5 hundred a month minimum to lease the software (they generally won't sell it to you and if they do you better be sitting down when they tell you the price). How will you handle payments - if you use an external company like adfit (now debit success), they're take probably 10% of everything for such a small Club. Better to run it yourself with AP's but make sure you can import your bank statement and map the payments to the member automatically or you'll be spending a lot of time reconciling payments to members.

Then there is maintenance of equipment, members hate broken gear and service techs charge a fortune, better to do it yourself if handy with a spanner. Make sure you do loads of preventive maintenance, dust is a real killer for cardio equipment esp. treadmills, they overheat and die and the motors and speed controllers are monster bucks, so get the covers off every month and clean them out. Kept the belts well lubed, if you don't then the increased friction can burn a motor out. Always better to buy second hand big name brands like Life Fitness, Startrac and Technogym than new cheap Chinese gear, the motors and bearings are just not up to the job.

Just to give you an ideal, the spend on decent new equipment for a Club capable of handling 1,000 members would be around $400k to $500k. To cover the basics for 100 to 300 members you'd be lucky to get change out of $150k. But if you're careful and get some good second hand gear you can at least half this. Leasing equipment is also an option

Good luck!

:shock: Holy crap. I am NEVER going to get involved with business.

[steak]

theres no shortage of gyms around so they must be doing ok

[geronamo]

Thanks iwilson, yes it is a very daunting task. But I have a strong passion for the industry so I think I can succeed. Do you know of any websites or links to literature I could look at? Do I need to be registered with anyone? We are currently looking at the fit out and need to know what is required, before we spend all our money and have to do it again..

Do we have to notify anyone we are opening a gym? Argh so many questions.. Thanks

[HaNs]

Poach a decent gym manager from another place :pfft:

[roadie]

if your asking questions like do we have to notify anyone we are opening then dude you need to do a lot of research before committing to anything.

different premises are zoned for different activities....dont try to setup retail in a commercial zone etc otherwise you may need a resource consent. the landlord wont always tell you what can and cant be done and let you sign the lease and find out yourself.

often the local planning rules can be found online from the local council website.....but these are major big documents and a good start would be to engage an RMA planner....or a lawyer

you also need to consider the way you setup the company....partnership, ltd, inc society etc......there needs to be a good set of documents made at the start to record the agreements as even though you indicate there are two of you banks can come after just one for the debts.....

i would much prefer to join a gym that was setup like a golf club, and had a committee structure rather than an owner....i would pay more to join somewhere that didnt let casuals in on a rainy days until you cant fit into the changing room and every machine is taken.......its a lot more democratic and it only takes 15 members to start this way.....there are some down sides in that if it is a success the profits are for the club but employment contracts or contract agreements can assist on that front.

[mr natural]

even at 100 members by the time you pay all commercial lease costs, Your wage to staff it, power, phone and the heap of other bills you least likely would expect, you'll be going backwards at a great rate of knots. You need to do the sums and factor in a decent extra margin for costs v.s profit otherwise you could quickly see yourself bankrupt and owing on a lease agreement ect.......

If you want to do something it seems you'd be better off setting up something from home in a double or triple garage perhaps? maybe get your freinds to chip in for the gear?